Cover art for The First Murderer I Ever Met
Published
Simon & Schuster Australia, August 2025
ISBN
9781761635298
Format
Softcover, 304 pages
Dimensions
23.4cm × 15.3cm

The First Murderer I Ever Met Hanging out with criminals and cops

Not yet released
Due August 26, 2025.
Fast $7.95 flat-rate shipping!
Only pay $7.95 per order within Australia, including end-to-end parcel tracking.
100% encrypted and secure
We adhere to industry best practice and never store credit card details.
Talk to real people
Contact us seven days a week – our staff are here to help.

For more than thirty years, Mark Dapin has been hanging out with crooks, and both types of cop. In this gripping, often funny and always surprising book, he sorts the tall stories from the truth about true crime, showing us what some of Australia's most famous felons are really like.

Mark Dapin was still in school when he met his first murderer - a boy called Ian. In reporting the murder Ian eventually committed, newspapers used the cliche that it 'shocked even those who knew him best'. But it didn't shock Dapin, because he knew Ian in real life, not in cliches.

Criminals are sensationalised in the press and mythologised in their own stories. In describing criminals, police and prison officers he's spent time with, Dapin searches for the real characters and events. How many of Chopper Read's stories were actually true? What's it like at home with former murder cop Gary Jubelin? Was the biggest art heist in Australian history carried out by one of Dapin's neighbours, the mysterious Sky Blue? And what happens when you go to visit a prison with celebrated escapee John Killick? These encounters are better than a ring-side seat to the underworld: Dapin gets in the ring.

The First Murderer I Ever Met is the truest true crime - it's what actually happened.

Related books